Andrea Poli had given them the early lead at the StadioBentegodi, but Luca Toni bagged a brace of headers to seal the Serie A season opener upset.

“We played badly at football, badly as a team and should’ve controlled the ball better,” the Coach told Sky Sport Italia.

“We reanimated Verona, who had until then been struggling. We played badly and Verona amply deserved the victory, so this has to make us reflect. We must play with more determination to bring home the results.

“I am not so much worried as angry, because we made life difficult for ourselves, were soft and were bad on a technical level too.

“It is the opening weekend, so it’s normal that to lose like this is painful, especially as we have an important Champions League play-off with PSV on Wednesday.

“Toni set the example for Verona and fought like a lion, which ought to be our spirit,” continued Allegri.

“In order to get results, we need a different attitude. There are some players who didn’t manage much pre-season training, but that cannot be an alibi. When your legs give in, you have to defend with 10 men and that didn’t happen today.

“We only played as a team for the first 13 minutes. Were there refereeing errors? I prefer to talk about the game.”